Neighbourhood

Researchers have not agreed on an exact definition, but the following may serve as a starting point: "Neighbourhood is generally defined spatially as a specific geographic area and functionally as a set of social networks.

"[clarification needed][1] In the words of the urban scholar Lewis Mumford, "Neighborhoods, in some annoying, inchoate fashion exist wherever human beings congregate, in permanent family dwellings; and many of the functions of the city tend to be distributed naturally—that is, without any theoretical preoccupation or political direction—into neighborhoods.

In some cases, however, administrative districts coincided with neighbourhoods, leading to a high level of regulation of social life by officials.

One factor contributing to neighbourhood distinctiveness and social cohesion in past cities was the role of rural to urban migration.

[13] Alfred Kahn, as early as the mid-1970s, described the "experience, theory and fads" of neighbourhood service delivery over the prior decade, including discussion of income transfers and poverty.

[14] Neighbourhoods, as a core aspect of community, also are the site of services for youth, including children with disabilities[15] and coordinated approaches to low-income populations.

At the same time, the neighbourhood is a site of interventions to create Age-Friendly Cities and Communities (AFCC) as many older adults tend to have narrower life space.

(See Administrative divisions of the People's Republic of China) The term has no general official or statistical purpose in the United Kingdom, but is often used by local boroughs for self-chosen sub-divisions of their area for the delivery of various services and functions, as for example in Kingston-upon-Thames[21] or is used as an informal term to refer to a small area within a town or city.

These may regulate such matters as lawn care and fence height, and they may provide such services as block parties, neighbourhood parks and community security.